Maedayama Clan
The Maedayama Clan (前田山一族, Maedayama Ichizoku) is one of the many clans that reside inside Konohagakure. It is said to be one of the weakest clan within the village, due to the small number of shinobi and kunoichi produced from the clan. Background The Maedayama Clan are descended from the Land of Lightning. The clan is split into two parts; the main house, and the branch house. The main house is mostly comprised of shinobi, while the branch house is mostly comprised of civilians. This split is caused by several historical events. During the Warring States Period, the clan were originally a nomadic clan, which eventually split, one half settling in the Land of Lightning while another half moved on to the Land of Fire. Origin According to ancient texts left behind by their ancestors from the time of the Sage of Six Paths, detailing the first appearance of their Kekkei Genkai, the Maedayama who unlocked it was said to have died and passed over to the Takamagahara, and had met with a messenger of Inari Ōkami, an Inari Fox, who is troubled about how its deity is feeling rather down, causing the Earth to become unstable and for draughts to sweep the land. The Maedayama Ancestor managed to cheer the god up, but had accidentally offended Susanoo-no-Mikoto, leading to him being zapped from Takamagahara back to the Human World. However, Inari Okami had been grateful to him, so they granted him a blessing, so that he would survive the fall, and those with his blood would live richly and healthily. This was what majority of the branch house members believed. However, the main house member believed in a different version of the story; that the Maedayama ancestor had in fact been plowing the fields, when he noticed a pure white ox standing at the edge of the forest. He had immediately abandoned his place, and had attempted to capture the ox for the benefit of his family. However, an old man stopped him in his tracks, and questioned his decision, proclaiming that the fact of taking away such a wonderful animals' freedom is nothing short of cruel. However, the Maedayama ancestor reasoned with the man, and refused, stating that he did not wish the animal harm, only that he could introduce the ox to his own female ox, so that he could have calves that could grow up to be as magnificent as the ox in front of him and serve his family well. The old man thought for a long time, before arriving to a decision; he asked the Maedayama ancestor to sit with him and have conversation. If the man had suitably impressed him, he would allow the man to borrow his ox for every farming season of the year. The Maedayama ancestor agreed. They talked and talked- hours passed, and the sun began to set. Only then did the Maedayama notice that the ox was still there, but it was giving off a holy light. It was then that the old man revealed himself to be Tenjinsama, and admitted that the ox was in fact a celestial messenger. However, he did uphold his end of the deal, and had decided that the Maedayama ancestor had suitably impressed him. Thus, he allowed the Maedayama ancestor to borrow his ox in times of need, and blessed the man and his future generation with the control over water, in order to aid him in taking care of his crops. Warring States Period The Maedayama Clan during this time was no longer farmers and merchants; the Maedayama Clan is now a nomadic clan comprised of strong shinobi with an incredibly strong affinity for water, rearing their signature pure white oxen and roaming across the plains of what is now the Land of Rice Fields. They eventually settled there for a while, and due to the fertile land and suitable condition of the land, the Maedayama Clan almost immediately made the land their own, as they slowly bought over the land from its lord. During the Warring States Period, the Maedayama Clan were not only a shinobi clan, but also a civilian clan, with merchants and farmers which promised them a near-monopoly over the production of rice. However, their prosperity did not last long, and ended promptly after nearly two decades. This much power in a mere clan however, garnered too much attention, and it wasn’t long before they were targeted; their paddy fields burnt, their civilians were killed and their homes invaded. This caused the Maedayama to return to their nomadic ways; but with a new strategy. The farmers and merchants now hide their surname, and over time, they became the shadow which supports the main house in their shinobi exploits through trading, and farming and other traditional economies. Meanwhile, the shinobi continued defending their empty territory, in a never-ending battle to not only protect what’s their own, but also take over smaller territories from other clans. This caused the clan to properly separate into the main house, and the branch house. Konoha When the Maedayama Clan caught wind of the formation of Konoha, the clan was once again split in half; one half of the clan wished to return to the Land of Lightning, where they originally hailed from and officially owned several plots of land, while another half wished to head to the Land of Fire to join Konoha, as they believed that joining the Senju and Uchiha Clan, along with the other strong clans would be safer. As the majority of the clan had chosen to head towards the Land of Fire- as not only did they receive an invitation, but also the fact that many powerful clans had already chosen to reside there, the land is also fit for continuing their way of life. Thus, the portion of the clan that wished to return to the Land of Lightning was exiled in name, and abandoned their family name so that their clan would not be tied to two villages. First Maedayama Branch House Rebellion The rebellion of the branch house was a long time coming; since before the founding of Konoha, before even the Warring States Period, there has always been extreme disagreements between the main house and branch house regarding the interpretation of the ancient text of their origin. The origin story of which, caused each house of the clan to adopt strong biases, and the civilian members in particular had thought themselves above the shinobi faction of the clan; this is where the main house of the clan were mostly comprised of shinobi, while the branch house of the clan were mostly comprised of civilians. The branch house believed that their blessings from the kami meant that the Maedayama Clan was meant to be ruled by the merchants and farmers, but their rightful position had been taked away forcefully by the main house, who has angered the kami and was cursed to live a life of bloodshed. Moreoever, the admittedly-cruel and harsh manner in which many of the main house shinobi treat the branch house civilian only seemed to fan the flames, add oil to the fire so to say, and this was what led to said rebellion. With the first shinobi member from the branch house, along with the dwindling power of the main house, the merchants and farmers of the branch house staged a major rebellion; while a group openly confronted the clan head in public, another group headed to kidnap the twin heiress, and another had ransacked the clan library of shinobi arts, which was only privy to main house members before that day. However, at the end of the day, it ended with bloodshed, despite Kenichi Maedayama, the clean head at the time’s best efforts to settle it with diplomacy. The heir of the clan, Kagaya, returning at a bad timing, had caused the two rebels holding the twin heiress’ hostage to take drastic actions, and the murder of Hisako and Chiyoko Maedayama had sent the situation into chaos. It ended with the leaders of the rebellion committing seppuku, with members of the rebellion being put under house arrest, with their wives and children exiled from the clan. The death of the twin sisters of Kagaya had also lit a fire within the young heir, which would lead to the events in the subsequent rebellion. Second Maedayama Branch House Rebellion ((WIP)) Abilities The ‘kekkei genkai’ of the Maedayama clan blurs the line between kekkei genkai and hiden. Enhanced Intelligence Members of the clan which was born with the kekkei genkai were said to be extremely intelligent and logical, with a high level of ability to reason and decipher complicated information at a young age. However, this ability becomes less of an ability, and becomes less obvious as the person ages. It is still blurry if this enhanced intelligence could be considered an ability tied to the clan’s kekkei genkai or not, as clan members who does not possess the kekkei genkai have also shown to have enhanced intelligence to some degree. Kekkei Genkai The Maedayama Clan’s kekkei genkai is a water chakra-based kekkei genkai, though it is still unsure if the kekkei genkai could be considered to be a sensor kekkei genkai, simple nature transformation kekkei genkai with water release or a kekkei tōta with water release, wind release, and fire release. This is due to the fact that members which do possess the kekkei genkai are shown to not only have an extremely strong affinity towards water, but is also able to manipulate its temperature, and state to such a degree that no jutsu could imitate. Water Detection The kekkei genkai allows the user to detect any and all forms of water within a certain radius; it is noted that members with the kekkei genkai are even able to locate groundwater and humidity of an area. This also goes for other forms of life, as members with the kekkei genkai are able to tell even the difference in amount of liquid within a living organism, including but not limited to humans and plants. Among the most useful part of this quirk, is that the Maedayama with the kekkei genkai would be able to differentiate between real water, and the water produced from chakra. Kagaya has also mentioned that he is able to detect the ‘feel’ of a type of water, whether it is acid, neutral or alkali. He is also able to detect the minute changes within the water, and mentioned that water with different additives in it has a different feel to it, an ability which has aided him from accidentally ingesting poison many times in his lifetime. Though it is not explicitly mentioned, Kagaya was able to detect an attacker’s presence and position simply by detecting the presence of water nearby. ((? This is still in trial- not sure if I want to use this kekkei genkai)) Advanced Water Manipulation The kekkei genkai allows its users to reach a whole other level of water manipulation which normal people are unable to achieve. Kekkei genkai users, while they still do base their techniques off of common jutsu, are more in tune with not only the element, but also of the presence of water in their surroundings and are able to achieve a higher level of control with all their water-based techniques with less effort. Wielders of the kekkei genkai are capable of only forming strands of water, and is also capable of extracting water from living organisms, and also control the water within living organisms with only modified jutsu. It is said that clan members possessing the kekkei genkai could easily rival even Senju Tobirama in the control and power of the water element, and perhaps even surpass the elemental affinity of the legendary shinobi. Maedayama Kagaya was in fact able to pull water from even within the desert, and from the groundwater within the desert of the Land of Wind; his ability which had earned him the hatred of many Sand Shinobi, as he was among the major reasons for their defeat in the Second Shinobi World War, for Kagaya had successfully crippled the entire country by essentially cutting off their water supply by redirecting the underground water from the country. He was also able to redirect the flow back to Sunagakure at the end of the Third Shinobi War, as a part of war reparations. Kagaya was also able control the liquid within several human’s bodies during the war, and use this ability to great affect at the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning. Leaders *Kenichi Maedayama *Kagaya Maedayama Heirs *Kagaya Maedayama *Hiroyuki Maedayama Other Notable Clan Members Trivia *Maedayama can be split into three parts, Mae-'' (前) for ‘front’, ''da-''(田）for ‘paddy, field’ and ''yama(山）for ‘mountain’. **This is possibly due to the fact that within the ancient texts, the Maedayama were traditionally farmers who planted on the slopes of mountains. *It was said that there are almost a thousand members within the Maedayama Clan during the founding of Konohagakure, due to their open policy with marriage. **However, due to the first shinobi world war, and many women marrying outside the clan, the population of the Maedayama dwindled until only a measly two hundred members. ** *All members of the Maedayama Clan share the same physical traits; their dark brown hair and bright blue eyes, with skin tones ranging from lightly tanned to olive. *The Maedayama Clan were among the first to join Konohagakure at its founding, offering the merchant connections and their shinobi’s prowess. Category:DRAFT Category:OC Clan Category:Clans Category:Maedayama Clan